Her Guardian
by Emeraldbuttercup
Summary: He wanted to be a man, for her.


Diaval glided on the winds, his glossy feathers rippling in the dying sunlight. With a sudden beat of his powerful wings he soared upward dizzyingly, a flash of dark azure and ebony. The autumn air pummeled at his face, the moist smell and hint of a chill invorgorating his senses.

He was so alive.

Through clouds of fine mist he swooped, the warm feeling in his chest expanding to fill the skies. Diaval laughed with pure ecstasy, diving to skim the canopy of the trees below. Ahead the sun was sinking into the valley, the golden sphere being swallowed by the mountains. Long shadows came from the castle far in the distance, the turrets set aflame by the sun's brilliance.

With a nostalgic sigh, Diaval expertly dove in a hidden gap between the interlocking branches, back into the wood's embrace. Not twenty yards away loomed the Briar. It stood as a solemn guardian to the Moors, as dark and imperious as its creator. Through the dark and twisted brush, the small pinprick of a campfire could be made out. Soliders from Stephan's army, then. Diaval's stomach twisted painfully at the thought of them being so close to his mistress's abode. Their rowdy bellowing and crude weaponry rested like a sickly blemish in the forest. Their noise frightened away the birds, and the tranquil mornings were brought to an abrupt end with their shrieking grindstone. Diaval looked on those men with nothing short of disgust and disdain. Maleficent did as well, though Diaval could tell there was something else hidden there in those hypnotic eyes.

The way she flinched at their sudden laughter.

Her shoulders hunching protectively as they trampled through the woods, her slightest step backwards.

The tightness around her eyes, the strained arch of her alabaster neck, the tremor that occasionally seized her slender hand. All the smallest details, yet Diaval would watch her with creeping dread during these times.

Maleficent was afraid of men.

Diaval glided in the darkening woods, watching as the distant campfire light flickered. The sour smell of frothed ale and mead punctured the natural smell of the woods like a disease.

It was then he heard a strangled cry echoing through the night sky.

A shiver ran through Diaval, and his senses were dosed in a sudden paralyzing terror.

He shot through the air with a sharp beat of his powerful wings, his onyx eyes widening as he scanned the ground rushing below him.

A few seconds later he found her, and his breath caught.

Maleficent knelt tangled in a net, the iron fibers shining wickedly in the first rays of moonlight. She panted, eyes wild with undiluted fear as she struggled viciously against the trap. Wisps of green fire licked her fingertips before dying, her powers fading rapidly. Her slender fingers clawed hopelessly against the metal. Angry scarlet veins were burning into her skin, the iron hissing at the contact.

"D-Diaval!" Maleficent choked, her voice raw. Diaval flew to her in a flurry of panicked movement, wings buffeting as his talons wrapped around the iron fibers and heaved. Maleficent whimpered as the iron cut into her, and Diaval let go abruptly, frightened that he was adding to her torture. The trap was ruthlessly made so the opening closed like a drawstring, offering no way out. Maleficent crouched with her hands flat on the ground, as if to regain her balance.

"...into...into..." She groaned as she tried to cast a spell, tears welling in her eyes. Diaval shouted as he watched burns grow, the smell of burning flesh blinding his vision.

Maleficent fell to her side, curling in on herself as the pain consumed her. Diaval would have screamed if he could.

He could feel her suffering, feel her despair- He latched onto the trap and blindly tore at it with all his might.

"...please..." Maleficent begged, her voice low and soft, tears staining her feverish face. She shuddered and drew into herself.

Her wide kaledoscopic eyes were on Diaval, penetrating him. Those eyes then fluttered closed, dark eyelashes brushing her cheeks as another moan escaped her.

"...into..." Her lips trembled as she weakly tried to form the words. "...into a man..."

Diaval's body became cool and fluid, and the world rippled around him. Before he could process her words, he had already turned back into a man. Without thinking Diaval lunged at Maleficent's huddled form, his hands shakily looking for an opening in the trap. An inhuman cry escaped his throat. Maleficent had gone still, her silky hair cascading on the ground like a halo about her head. With the marring burns and paleness of her skin, she appeared corpse-like.

"Maleficent! Oh, Maleficent..."

Heart pounding in his throat, Diaval found the small opening and hastily loosened it. Ripping the net away from Maleficent seemed to take ages in Diaval's eyes. Maleficent was limp throughout it all, her head lolling to the side as he removed the net from her shoulders and finally her head. Diaval threw the net uncaring into the brush, his attention remaining fixed on Maleficent. Diaval leaned over her, his hands hovering over her shivering form uselessly. Maleficent convulsed on the ground, the burns raging against her skin. Diaval could follow the pattern of the interwoven web on her arms, branded almost black into skin-

"Shhh, shhhh..." Diaval comforted shakily, carefully taking Maleficent's shoulders and pulling her upper body off the barren ground and into his arms. His veins filled with ice as she trembled against him.

Corpse-like.

Diaval did his best to shake that image from his mind, but it clung to him. A fear that would haunt him to his grave.

On instinct he held Maleficent closer to him, watching warily as tendrils of green fire knit their way over her wounds. The movement was sluggish, the tendrils fading in and out of existence.

"Come on..." Diaval said through gritted teeth, a lump forming in his throat. His mistress was a force of nature, impenetrable and unmoving. She walked with an ethereal distance, and all the Moors bowed to her. To see her so vulnerable sickened him with distress. Diaval hastily wiped his face, only then noticing that tears had stained it.

"I'll protect you," Diaval murmured under his breath, a fire kindling in his chest. He had been so helpless to aid Maleficent in his raven form. For a terrible moment, he thought he would watch her die, unable to save her. His breath quickened in panic as the thought.

It was then Diaval realized he wanted desperately to be a man. Be a man, for her. What use were the skies if she could not ride the wind alongside him?

His thumb caressed her shoulder as he silently watched over her.

Maleficent's mouth and eyes opened with a sudden gasp. Her eyes were unfocused, and her chest heaved with rapid breaths.

"Mistress..." Diaval asked worriedly. Maleficent did not respond, her head lolling against his chest wearily. A tremor ran through her body, hysteria taking hold of her. Her breathing was shallow, and green sparks crackled at her fingertips.

"Mistress...Mistress, you're safe, I'm here-" Diaval begged. "-Mistress-" Maleficent was gasping for air, choking weakly against him.

"Mistress, MISTRESS! MALEFICENT!"

"Diaval," Maleficent coughed, her hypnotic eyes focusing on his. She inhaled deeply, her crimson lips parting slightly. She looked exhausted, but her burns were slowly fading away.

"I'm here." Diaval said, relief flooding him. "I've got you." Maleficent blearily turned her head, a wordlessly surveying her surroundings. Looking at Diaval's arms around her, Maleficent stiffened.

"Wings..." Maleficent slurred, turning her face away from him with a grimace. Diaval's chest tightened.

"I'm not going to take your wings." Diaval consoled gently. Maleficent shook her head, her glossy horns catching the moonlight.

"Go..."

"Mistress, you're not well, let me-"

"Leave." She breathed, her voice cold. Diaval flinched at her words. Shakily he relinquished his hold on her, carefully setting her on the bare ground. He looked down at her as she curled into herself, as though she were hiding from the world.

Diaval stared, his dark eyes taking her in. His hand trembled as he reached out for her. His fingers gently brushed her back.

"LEAVE!" Her fingers closed around his wrist, her voice ripping from her throat. Diaval yelped as her fingers squeezed uncomfortably, pain shooting through his arm. Her eyes were glowing and her lips curled back in a snarl. Fear flooded Diaval's senses in an instant as he looked at her face, twisted beyond recognition with pain and anger. Like the sun hitting the fragments of a broken mirror, he saw her agony and fury in a blinding flash.

She forcefully threw his wrist away from her, and Diaval hastily stumbled to feet. Clutching his arm to his chest, he staggered away into the dark wood. Only once he was a safe distance away did he dare turn back.

Maleficent was so tiny, curled on the ground. Her form rose and fell unsteadily with silent sobbing. Diaval swallowed thickly. He was useless, standing there in the shadows as he watched Maleficent bleed the hurt she felt.

As much as he wanted to, he could not take her into his arms. He was hers, but not like that.

No mattered how many silent prayers he offered. They were the futile wishes of a fantasy forbidden to him. But oh, what a fantasy...

Diaval stalked away, cradling his arm gingerly. He would guard the clearing tonight, so none may startle upon the weakened fae. Diaval had little doubt Maleficent would be healed by morning light. Then things would return to their practiced pattern, and him a mute shadow trailing after his mistress. But until then he would stay and protect her, faithful in the dark.

After all, he was her guardian.

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><p><strong>Please review! Any suggestions for another one-shot?<strong>


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